Exactly. This isn't the 1930s anymore.
The CBC gets that 1.2 billion, plus they sell advertising. The CBC has outlived its purpose. Here's their mandate.
"...the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, as the national public broadcaster, should provide radio and television services incorporating a wide range of programming that informs, enlightens and entertains;
...the programming provided by the Corporation should:
i. be predominantly and distinctively Canadian, reflect Canada and its regions to national and regional audiences, while serving the special needs of those regions,
ii. actively contribute to the flow and exchange of cultural expression,
iii. be in English and in French, reflecting the different needs and circumstances of each official language community, including the particular needs and circumstances of English and French linguistic minorities,
iv. strive to be of equivalent quality in English and French,
v. contribute to shared national consciousness and identity,
vi. be made available throughout Canada by the most appropriate and efficient means and as resources become available for the purpose, and
vii. reflect the multicultural and multiracial nature of Canada."
Mandate
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Do we need to protect "the Canadian identity"? Is it so fragile that the government needs to defend it?
Do we need an agency to provide French, English and other ethnic programming? It seems that Italian, Chinese, indigenous and other programming is alive and well without the CBC. This might have been necessary in the first half of the 20th century, but isn't a concern now.
Gay, religious, ethnic programming, etc. are doing quite well outside of the CBC.
Or is the CBC merely a place for otherwise unemployable Canadian artists and media types, who are so insecure that they must feed at the public teat?